Though The Heart Sutraa is an ancient Buddhist scripture, scholars are now discovering how it offers insight into the nature of an ultimate reality perceived through intuitive wisdom. Fascinatingly, quantum physicists are increasingly discovering interesting parallels between science and the basic insights of The Heart Sutra. In this important offering, Mu Soeng shows how the intellectual and the intuitive can begin to meet. In offering a commentary on this important piece of the world's great religious literature, The Heart of the Universe establishes a broad context to encounter The Heart Sutra on many levels -- historical, spiritual, and empirical -- each serving to interdependently illuminate the other.

Soeng is a former Zen monk and teacher who is the codirector of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.

	Introduction	1
	The Text Itself	5
	The Maha Prajna Paramita Hridaya Sutra	7
	Background and Setting of the Sutra	9
	Historical Background of the Sutra	11
	The Setting	22
	Commentary	27
	Appendix	99
	Notes	103
	Bibliography	105
	Acknowledgments	107
	Index	109
	About the Author	117